Thermotunnel converter



1965 F. N. HUFFMAN 3,169,200

THERMOTUNNEL CONVERTER Filed June 22, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 T 8 1O' 1" 1- C E 5 r 5 LL o F B [LI 3 I g 10 $2 5 \A LL 10- 500 700 900 H0O I300 1500 TEMPERATURE, K Fig. 1.

EMITTER OLLECTOR ouT OXIDE SPACERS TEMPERATURE PROFILE COLLECTOR m ouT EMITTEF /(OXIDE SPACERS 40 mo K Mff y;

COLLECTOR 3 imizis iiafizaizg 59- 4 INVENTOR. Fred N. Huffman CONFIGURATION BY Fig. 3. XMQW ATTORNEY.

Feb. 9, 1965 F. N. HUFFMAN 3,169,

TI-IERMOTUNNEL CONVERTER Filed June 22, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 s= 40S (s mac/K) so 4o 30 A wsss THERMOTUNNEL POWER ,8, pV/"K s 1 (s ms) TEMPERATURE, "K

INVENTOR. Fred N. Huffman BY flw 4: WM

ATTORNEY.

1965 F. N. HUFFMAN 69,

THERMOTUNNEL CONVERTER Filed June 22, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 s I s tll THERMOTUNNEL FIGURE OF MERIT FOR 5 521 AND s =1o/i THERMOTUNNEL FIGURE OF MERIT FOR s =1oi\(s 3011) 10- 100 300 500 700 900 1100 1300 i500 TEMPERATURE, K

INVENTOR Fred N. Huffman A TTORNE Y.

United States Patent Ofifice 3,169,200 THERMOTUNNEL CONVERTER Fred N. HulfmamBaltimore, Md., assignor to the United States of America as represented by the United States Atomic Energy Commission Filed June 22, 1962, Ser. No. 204,658 4 Claims. (Cl. 310-4) This invention relates to means for converting thermal energy to electric power, and more especially to a novel class of devices differing from thermoelectric and thermionic converters. These novel devices will be denoted herein as thermotunnel converters.

Despite a large scale research effort by both Government and industry, progress in development of thermoelectric semicondctor materials appears to be blocked by two presently insurmountableobstacles: ('1) an upper temperature limit of almost 1000" K for the hot junction,

and (2) high thermal conduction of the lattice of the ma terials. Obstacle (2) is quite serious, because a good converter musthave a high electron transfer characteristic with a low heat transfer rate. Obstacle (1) arises where extremely high temperatures will be encountered, as in many nuclear reactor and space propulsion applications, so that thermoelectric converters are essentially low-temperature devices. 1

In thermionic diode devices, a hot emitter is spaced about .001 to 1 cm. away from a cooler collector, thus thicknesses.

, 3,169,200 Patented Feb. 9, 1965 FIG. 1 shows a comparison of the figures of merit for thermoelectric, thermonic, and thermotunnel converters;

FIG. 2 shows schematically the basic principle of the invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates one form of device for practicing the invention;

FIG. 4 shows a temperature profile across the device of .FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 shows the thermotunnel power as a function of temperature; and

FIG. 6 shows the figure of merit for'difi'erent spacer Referring now to FIG. 1, three curves are shown;

' 3 Curve A shows the figure of merit Z as a function of breaking the lattice to heat transfer by conduction. Ra-

diation is then the primary mechanism forheat transfer. But thermionic converters are inherently .high temperature devices because the electrode materials have, rela- 'tively high work functions, so: that high current densities cannot be obtained at low temperatures. 0

Thus there is a range of temperaturesbetvveen about.

A 700 and 1400" K.in which substantial improvement in performance is desired.- v g Y 1 Accordingly, it is a principal object of this invention to provide a power converter in which the thermal conduction of the lattice is reduced, while the electron transfer rate is maintained highp Another object is to protrode becomes the emitter while theother is cooled and becomes the collector. Some rneansis provided to thermally "insulate the two electrodes from each other. Be-

cause the electrons invthe hotter electrode will have a A thermal gra-- other direction.

' then there is a very good material.

5 5 10- mm. Hg, for example) the spacing is of the order higher, average energy. distribution ,thanthoise in the collect-or, more electrons from the hotterelectrlode will tunnel through the potential barrier between the. plates to the collector than will tunnel in the reverse, direction. Thus the heat applied to the emitter raiseselectrons-to higher energy levels where) the probability. is increased for their tunneling through the barrier to thecollector.

' The electrons received. at the collector may be run through a load impedance to deliveruseful Work.

The invention may be best understood from the following detailed description"'o-i' prefererd embodiments thereof, when read in ings,'whe'rein:

connection. the attached drawtemperature for typical N type lead-tellur'ium thermoelectric converters; curve Bshows a typical curve for a thermionic converter of impregnated tungsten; and curve C shows a curve for a thermotunnel converter with 5 A. spacing between electrodes. The ordinate, being respective figures of merit, indicate a measure of the efliciency of conversion possible with the device, and are described more fully by Kaye and Welsh in Direct Conversion of Heat to Electricity. It is obvious from a glance that from about 700 K. to about 1300? K., the two known de vices have very low efliciencies, whereas the thermotunnel converter successfully bridges the gap between low and high temperature devices and has a very high figure of merit in the desired region.

Referring to FIG.v 2-, in a simple form of a thermotun nel converter, emitter electrode l is heated while collector electrode 2 is maintained at a temperature below that of electrode 1, for example, by placing a heats'ource reactor fuel element adjacent emitter.

such as a nuclear. 1. Electrons from emitter 1 have a greater probability of tunneling across the potential barrier to collector 2 than the probability for electrons to tunnelacross in the lector 2 across the gap than leave it, producing a current which can be passed through a load impedance 3, doing useful work. Q indicates the direction of the heat flux. The electrodes are preferably of as low a Workfunction as possible, to best utilize the applied heat.

By tunneling is meant the observed phenomenon that electron waves are transmitted through a potential barrier which is of the same thicknessor less than the electron Wavelength. It may also be considered on the basis of the If the width of a barrier is of the uncertainty principle. same order as the uncertainty. in position of an electron,

probability of finding an electron on either side of the barrier. Accordingly, the, spacing between electrodes in thermotu'nnel converters is equal to or less than the electron wavelength in the spacing In a conventionally attainable vacuum (of of 40 angstroms.

Thin oxide films may be grown thermally or produced by anodizing as described by Haas in Journal of the 0 Optical Society of America, vol. 39, page 532, for example, which are of the required thickness. Several layers of anodized films may be piled on one another with small contact coefficients between the layers. The effective thickness of such oxide films as a potential barrier is less than the actual measured thickness by a factor of about three relative to vacuum, becauseof the ion cores in the oxide, so that tunneling occurs through films of up to the order of A. thickness, and such films may.

be used in thermotunnel converters. The films should have as small contact coeflicients with the emitter. and

As a result more electrons flow to col-I tunnel effect achieved with very small spacings (below about 20 A.) makes the spacer resistivity much lower, as is evident for the example of Cu O. Its experimentally observed resistivity is 68 ohm-cm, so that for a spacer 3 l0- cm..(3 A.) this total resistivity is about 2x10- ohm-cm. in a thermo-tunnel converter. The observed total resistivity inCu O is 10 ohm-cm. however, showing that the tunneling effect reduces the resistivity-for samples of thickness of the order herein described-by a factor of 50. A large number of emitter-spacer-collector sandwichespreferably about 10 placed in series will develop suitably large currents to be useful with reasonable heat fluxes.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a multilayer converter comprises an emitter 30, a collector 39, intermediate elements cent element. Apposite faces oneach of the elements 30-39 serve as emitter and collector, respectively, because of the thermal gradient maintained across the device. A-

load 41 is connected to the two electrodes 30,39.

FIG. 4'shows a temperature profile across the device of FIG. 3 for a temperature difierence of about 500 K., for example. Electrons tunnel through each oxide barrier to a cooler collector, having as a result higher potential. Each collector isat a higherpotentialthat the adiacent emitter which it confronts, and at the same potential as the emitter which forms a part of the same piece of material. By traversing some 10 layers, the total Fermi level shift across the device for reasonable heat fluxes is suflicient to provide good efficiency. 7 V

The equation giving the thermotunnel power for any material may be derived, and values for specific materials For example, substituting the known constants for aluminum in the above equation:

8.62X105 [115x 10 21m] B= T FIGURE 5 illustrates numerical values for 5 plotted against temperatures from 1001500 K., for four different values of vacuum spacer s. The equivalent thicknesses using oxide spacers are also given on the curves and are substantially three times as great.

The figure of merit for thermotunnel devices of the type shown in FIG. 3, analogous to Joffes figure of merit, may be defined:

I p Z is the figure of merit 31-38, and oxide spacers 40 disposed between each adja- 1 The tunnel reslstmty found from equatlon:

it against temperature for two different spacer thicknesses.

substituted to obtain numerical values for those materials.

This thermotunnel power is analogous to the thermoelectric or thermoionic power. Omitting the derivation for simplicity, the thermotunnel-power [3 of the thermotunnel leg only of a couple (not including the return lead) may be found from the relation:

,8 is the thermotunnel power k is 8.62 10- e.v./ K.

where eV is'the Fermi level shift, e.v. m is the electronic mass, grams h is Plancks constant.

It may be seen that for ranges of practical interest (under 1S00 K.) the spacer thickness should be no greater than 5 A. (15 A. for oxide spacers) so as to operate at the maximum figure of merit.

The values given for the figure of merit are conservative. They may be too low by an order of magnitude, since (1) the actualthermotunnel power achieved may be greater by a factor of three than that given by the approximate equation for 5 given above, as is shown by other calculations which will not be given here; and (2) the oxide ion cores will effectthe electrical conductivity. Hence operation appears feasible with oxide spacers of thickness of the order of 20 A., but no greater, since at greater thicknesses the figure of merit would fall below curve B of FIG. 6. 1

To return to the device of FIG. 3, assuming aluminum electrodes, aluminum oxide spacers, a tempenature drop across the device of 500 K., a spacing of 20 A. of oxide, an average thermal conductivity per converter of 0.2 watt/cm.= K., and a typical heat flux of 200 thermal watts/cmF, the required number of converters joined together may be found:

KAT Q:

where Q is the heat flux, watt/cm.

K is the thermal conductivity, watt/cm.= K.

s is the spacer thickness, cm. AT is the temperature drop, K., across one converter.

-. Substituting in'the above equation, AT=10- K. For

Example Q In a preferred embodiment, aluminum electrodes of 40 A. thickness are separated with anodized aluminum trical energy comprising:

(1) at least one electron emissive surface;

(2) a second surface disposed closely adjacent thereto to define a gap of width less than 40 angstrom units between said surfaces;

g (3) means for creating a temperature gradient between 'said surfaces, with said emissive surface the hotter to produce a flow of electrons to said second surface 7 across said gap by means of the quantum mechanical tunnel efiect; and

(4) means to thermallyinsulate said surfaces from each other across said gap.

2. The device of claim l wherein the said gap is below 10* mm. of mercury.

3. A thermotunnel converter comprisinga (1) at least a first electron emissive surface;

(2) a second surface disposed closely adjacent thereto to define a gap between said surfaces;

(3) means for creating a thermal gradient across said 20 pressure within converter from said first to said second surface to produce a flow of electrons across said gap; and

(4) oxide film spacer means disposed between said surfaces and contacting said surfaces, the contact between a surface and said spacer being characterized by a small contact coefiicient to provide minimum thermal conduction, said spacer means being less than (3) means to create a temperature gradient acrosssaid converter from the first to the last'electrode;

(4) means to connect said first and last electrodes.

to an external load to supply powerthereto.

References Cited lay the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 6,053,923 9/62 Stearns 136-4 MILTON o. HIRSHFIELD Primm-y Examiner. 

1. APPARARTUS FOR CONVERTING THERMAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY COMPRISING: (1) AT LEAST ONE ELECTRON EMISSIVE SURFACE; (2) A SECOND SURFACE DISPOSED CLOSELY ADJACENT THERETO TO DEFINE A GAP OF WIDTH LESS THAN 40 ANGSTROM UNITS BETWEEN SAID SURFACES; (3) MEANS FOR CREATING A TEMPERATURE GRADIENT BETWEEN SAID SURFACES, WITH SAID EMSSIVE SURFACE THE HOTTER TO PRODUCE A FLOW OF ELECTRONS TO SAID SECOND SURFACE ACROSS SAID GAP BY MEANS OF THE QUANTUM MECHANICAL TUNNEL EFFECT; AND (4) MEANS TO THERMALLY INSULATE SAID SURFACES FROM EACH OTHER ACROSS SAID GAP. 